Hoops analyst Stephen Bardo believes Illinois the best in the B1G
Big Ten Network and FOX college basketball analyst Stephen Bardo is thoroughly impressed with what he’s seen from Illinois in the early portion of the season. Wednesday night’s performance against Missouri has Bardo saying some complimentary things about the Fighting Illini.
Illinois was impressive in an 88-63 victory over Missouri Wednesday night, with Kofi Cockburn registering a double-double (25 points, 14 rebounds) and Alfonso Plummer adding 22 points in the victory. Brad Underwood’s team improved to 9-3 on the year.
After the game, Bardo said that Illinois is “probably” the top team in the B1G this year.
“If you look at it, the Marquette game, [Andre] Curbelo probably had his worst game ever. That’s not going to happen again, and they only lost by one,” Bardo said, per 247Sports. “Then they lose to an Arizona team that only suffered their first loss [Wednesday] on the road at Tennessee. That’s one of the three best teams in my opinion in the country. Then the Cincinnati game, they were banged up and ill. So when they’re all together, in my opinion, that’s probably the best team in the Big Ten. You saw it tonight.”
Illinois has lost games to Marquette, Cincinnati and Arizona, but is 2-0 in B1G play with victories over Rutgers and Iowa. Maybe the Fighting Illini didn’t start the year as red-hot as many anticipated, but they’re playing at a high level right now.
The Illini are back in action on Wednesday, Dec. 29, hosting Florida A&M.